Canadian entertainment and media thread

[duper]

http://www.petitiononline.com/idolben/petition.html

To: CTV
We believe that Ben Mulroney is not a good host for Canadian Idol. His jokes and wit lack what a good host should display. He is a poor representative for Canada, and we feel ashamed to have him on such a widely-viewed show. He is the worst part of a good show, and a show that would be far better with the absence of Ben Mulroney. We request the removal of Ben Mulroney from future Canadian Idol seasons.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Two things

1) its a bad show and Mulroney is a bad host. Makes perfect match, in my opinion.

2) I do not understand why any public figure with no talent is automatically designated "an embarrassment to Canada." Whathisname who hosts American Idol is widely considered to be awful, but no one is going around screaming "what an embarrassment to the United States."

[MolsonExport]

Lemme clarify, it is not my poll, nor my words. I hate the fucking show. I hate Ben Mulroney.

[duper]

^
I know you're an educated man and would never be behind such drivel. That's why I quoted the letter and not you.

[mr.x]

They shouldn't have cancelled Da Vinci. It's the most successful Canadian drama ever, and it's in syndication in other networks around the world including BBC, ABC (Australia Broadcasting Corp.), and more than a dozen American local networks.

These low ratings (300,000) were caused by the lockout, and perhaps American shows like House and American Idol which were on the same night. They could've simply moved the show onto another night, and give it another chance. This was a very shortsighted decision.



Sometimes, I just think CBC tries to do much. Doing news, a 24/7 news channel, sports, comedy, drama, and documentaries on five tv channels as well as radio in both english and french with just $1.4 billion is a bit of a stretch.

[althegreat III]

The Quebec government is slashing big time at Télé-Québec, some 100 people will lose their jobs within the next 2 years.

http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/story/qc-tele20060216.html


Télé-Québec faces major cuts
Last updated Feb 16 2006 08:39 AM EST
CBC News


Télé-Québec has been ordered by the Quebec government to cut its workforce by a third and to move all of its Montreal production to the private sector.

The move will save the public broadcaster $10 million to be pumped back into programming.

Télé-Québec has been told to cut 100 of its 300 employees over the next two years.

The Télé-Québec network is operated by the Quebec government.

It runs mostly educational programming in French, and doesn't officially compete with privately-owned television networks or with Radio-Canada television.

[canucklehead2]

Yeah the timeslot was the worst. By moving DaVinci's from Sunday to Tuesday was ratings suicide. They should have left well enough alone.

Too bad there are so few networks in Canada who would be willing to snag the show from CBC and order new episodes, especially when D's Inquest has become so popular in America within the last year.

[Kilgore Trout]

i'm furious that CBC has cancelled da vinci's city hall. it was critically-acclaimed and its precessor, da vinci's inquest, has been extremely popular in syndication and has garnered a devoted audience around the world. there was plenty of reason to believe that, given a couple of more seasons, city hall would have done the same.

the CBC needs to completely forget about ratings. it is a public broadcaster with a limited budget: it will always lose in a ratings war. it should focus on nurturing intelligent programming that is similar to what the american cable networks have been doing for several years.

da vinci was canada's the sopranos. by cancelling it the CBC is really shooting itself in the foot.

[harls]

Originally Posted by althegreat II

The Quebec government is slashing big time at Télé-Québec, some 100 people will lose their jobs within the next 2 years.

http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/story/qc-tele20060216.html


Télé-Québec faces major cuts
Last updated Feb 16 2006 08:39 AM EST
CBC News


Télé-Québec has been ordered by the Quebec government to cut its workforce by a third and to move all of its Montreal production to the private sector.

The move will save the public broadcaster $10 million to be pumped back into programming.

Télé-Québec has been told to cut 100 of its 300 employees over the next two years.

The Télé-Québec network is operated by the Quebec government.

It runs mostly educational programming in French, and doesn't officially compete with privately-owned television networks or with Radio-Canada television.

I like Télé-Québec.. they have a lot of really well produced shows. This is sad.

I hope they don't cut Ramdam.

[canucklehead2]

I wish each province retains and their provincial broadcasters mandate to include general interest mass appeal programming. Maybe this would spur new Canadian programming, since outside the CBC few other networks seem willing to invest in Canadian programming besides global clone shows like ET or Canadian Idol. BTW, how many provincial broadcasters are there?

B.C.-? there is one from what I remember
Alberta-Access
Saskatchewan-SCN
Ontario-TVO
Quebec-Tele-Quebec

Any others?

[Holden West]

http://www.knowledgenetwork.ca/

ABOUT KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

"Knowledge Network's mission is to deliver high quality, relevant, credible, and compelling educational programming accessible to all British Columbians via TV and the Web. As BC's public educational broadcaster, we also offer access to targeted audiences for educators who provide the information British Columbians need to adapt to their changing world."

My favourite KN program was the nude life-drawing classes from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

[canucklehead2]

Wow, too bad Alberta never had that.. The best we could come up with is Aunt Harriet's Magic Hat!

[althegreat III]

C.R.A.Z.Y. sweeps Genie awards
Last updated Mar 14 2006 08:04 AM EST
CBC News

Genie voters showed their love for C.R.A.Z.Y. on Monday night, as the hit Quebec coming-of-age story swept Canada's film awards.

I'm touched. This has been something – a crazy experience," Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée said as he accepted his best-director trophy.

"I'd liked to share this honour with everybody who worked so hard on this film, with so much devotion, passion and love."

C.R.A.Z.Y. entered the celebration of the year's best Canadian films as the front-runner. It ended up snagging 10 of the 12 categories for which it had been nominated, including best film, best overall sound and best original screenplay, as well as acting honours for Michel Côté (lead actor) and Danielle Proulx (best supporting actress).

The whimsical film, Vallée's third feature, tells the tale of a sexually confused boy growing up in Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s. The music in C.R.A.Z.Y., which features a range of artists from Patsy Cline to David Bowie, "was very important. It was like a character in the film," Vallée said after the Genie ceremony.

The film had already won the Golden Reel Award, presented to the homegrown movie that earned the highest domestic box office revenue in 2005.

C.R.A.Z.Y., which grossed more than $6.2 million in Canada during the Genies' qualifying period, was also Quebec's third-biggest box office hit last year (after the latest instalments of the Harry Potter and Star Wars franchises).

The C.R.A.Z.Y. sweep meant that the evening's second-most-nominated film, Water, was a distant runner-up.

The film, which revolves around a widow's ashram in India, is the third of filmmaker Deepa Mehta's elements trilogy. It won three Genies, including cinematography, original music score and best actress for Seema Biswas.

Perennial Genie favourite Atom Egoyan won best adapted screenplay for Where the Truth Lies. In his pre-taped acceptance speech, the Toronto filmmaker brandished what he claimed were rewrites for the script.

"I could have made it better … this is the proof," Egoyan said. "If it was good enough to win the award, I thank you."

Other winners included ScaredSacred (best documentary); Quebec actor Denis Bernard of L'Audition (best supporting actor); and filmmaker Louise Archambault, who won the Claude Jutra Award for Familia, her debut feature.

Instead of airing the entire gala, broadcaster CHUM showed an edited one-hour package from the "after party" at Toronto's historic Carlu concert hall. It included pre-taped interviews with the nominated filmmakers, excerpts of the night's winners accepting their awards and post-ceremony chats.

The Genie Awards are administered by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

Well no surprise there....and I can't say that I agree, because I haven't seen the other films...

[hackunion]

C.R.A.Z.Y. was a pretty bad movie for me, there are many greater Canadian/Québec films in my opinion. My friends and I watched Caché (France) the same night and we all liked it much better.

[althegreat III]

I agree. CRAZY is a good genre film, and a successful crowd-pleaser, but it qualifies as a average/mediocre film when put on the international scene. Nevertheless, the success that this film has brought, along with keeping the Canadian film industry on the world market still warrants this prize, in my opinion anyway.

[canucklehead2]

Did anyone actually watch the Genie's this year? I was surprised they boiled down the awards to an hour's party with the announcements of winners in between the mindless chatter of who's wearing what. It was really weird. I only watched about 5 minutes before I flipped it off. To me, CHUM is really downgrading the awards to a mere blip, instead of at least attempting to make it into an oscar-like ceremony. Even last years Golden Globe style dinnerparty was better. I mean its good that they didn't drag on, but come on...

[malek]

i don't know about you guys, but i really liked CRAZY. I was sure when I got out of the theatre on the premiere night that this movie would win some awards.

[canucklehead2]

The problem here is it never premiered on any movie screens despite some announcement that it would. You can only watch it here in Alberta on DVD.

[Wooster]

Not sure this belongs here, but an interesting read how Brokeback Mountain and Ang Lee's good experience filming in Calgary is prompting more producion here.


Hartnett, Jackson to shoot drama here in June
Calgary lands a knockout
Kevin Williamson
Calgary Sun
March 22, 2006

A pair of Hollywood heavyweights are bound for Calgary.


SAMUEL L. JACKSON

Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson will shoot the boxing-themed drama Resurrecting The Champ in our city this June, the Sun confirmed exclusively March 21 with the film’s director, Rod Lurie.

“I’m looking forward to coming up … The whole crew I’ve hired seems really excited,” says Lurie, who created the Geena Davis presidential drama Commander-in-Chief and directed the political thriller The Contender. “I’m jazzed.”

Lurie, speaking from his Los Angeles offices, says he’s flying to Calgary for the first time this weekend to begin scouting for the movie, which will star Hartnett as a reporter who finds a homeless man he mistakes for a famous former fighter.

Why did the production — which is not a western or a period piece — choose Calgary as its location?

“First off, there’s the obvious financial incentive to shoot in Canada and in Calgary, the film commission has been extremely helpful to us thus far,” Lurie says.

Also swaying him in our direction was a conversation he had with Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee.

“He told me he thinks in Calgary that they double for America better than America does. He was very convincing, talking about the talent base that exists there — he was extremely impressed. We have a slighter smaller budget than he did, but he managed to make Brokeback (look like) a magnificently expensive film and I’m hoping for the same.”

Says Calgary film commissioner Beth Thompson, “It’s a great opportunity for us. When I sat down and met with them and showed them what Calgary had to offer, they were quite impressed.”

Lurie, a former L.A.-based journalist, says the film “is a journalism story based on a true story about a Los Angeles Times, down-on-his-luck reporter who comes across the story of his life. He publishes it and becomes a star only to then find out that it was inadvertently a fraud.”

In casting the film’s leading men, he says, “In the case of Josh, he just seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

At first I thought he was too young for the role, but I met him and he’s not the same, sort-of-slightish guy he was in Pearl Harbor.

He’s full-grown, but still young. He also has a tremendous air of decency that I really liked for the part. And Sam is one of the all-time great actors. It will be astonishing fun to work with him on the role … I interviewed him when I was a journalist.”

It was shortly after Lurie left journalism in 1998, when he came across the story that would later become Champ.

“I called my agent to see who had the rights to the story … I auditioned to write the screenplay and they didn’t give me the job,” he recalls with a laugh.

“Then eventually they asked me to direct and re-write it, so I did.”

Lurie — who admits everyone involved is “doing this for the love of the game” and not the money — is no stranger to low-budgeted productions.

“(Commander-in-Chief) is big for a TV show, but it would be small for a film. It’s the same budget, relatively. The Contender was a very low-budget film that was also independent. Only a film I did called The Last Castle with Robert Redford was a pretty massive movie. I’m looking forward to the intimacy of making this film on my own terms up there … They’re going to let me make my movie, I won’t be getting studio or network notes.”

Lurie lived in Canada briefly as a child, when his father, who was a cartoonist for Life magazine, was based in Montreal.

He expects to be here a total of 16 weeks, including prep, with cameras rolling June 19 for about four weeks.

As for which U.S. city Calgary will be substituting for, Lurie says he hasn’t made up his mind yet. “Someone told me it could double great for Houston.”

[althegreat III]

Good stuff for Calgary.

On a related topic...did anyone watch the junos last night? i didn't.

[malek]

who really cares about the junos other than the artsy fartsy clique... there's way too many awards and galas.